I'm reading an excellent new book about American eating habits. It's called "Stuffed" by Hank Cardello. Mr. Cardello spent many years as a marketer in the food industry. He explains with compelling logic how we as a nation have progressed to demandig larger and larger portions. In response the food companies increased quantities of food while controlling prices by deliberately lowering quality and freshness. Giving Swanson food credit for starting the trend with "T.V. Dinners" (which were invented to address a huge surplus of turkey left over after Thanksgiving), states in part:
Swanson inverted the tried-and-true thinking. They dropped product quality - and by extension health - from the equation and found large scale results. It paved the way for a whole new means of gauging consumer satisfaction when it came to eating habits. If the consumer demands bigger portions, you don't raise the price, you use lower grade ingredients and adjust the taste to a manageable level. If the consumer demands a lower price, you don't sacrifice the product's gimmick; you rejigger the recipe to compensate for shifts in palate. If you manage to make it taste good in the process, great. If not, leave it to the marketing department. It's their job to come up with a way to make it sell.
Nice, huh? At au naturale, we'll never make these compromises because it is the antithesis of what we stand for - great, natural and healthy food that tastes great. While portions are significant, they are not the typical huge and mediocre mounds of calories you'll find in some restaurants. It is time we all wake up to what is causing the weight problems of Americans.
Doug
